The Ford Pinto, like most Detroit-built cars of its era, had its fuel tank mounted between the rear bumper and the rear axle, and a severe rear-end collision involving a car with this design could rupture the tank and lead to a gasoline fire. The Pinto name became inextricably linked with the image of a car exploding when hit (or even near-missed) when the 1977 Mother Jones article, "Pinto Madness", hit newsstands.

A few years later, Grimshaw v. Ford Motor Company resulted in hefty, public-image-tarnishing punitive damages against Ford (which had stopped selling the Pinto in 1980), and the Ford Pinto became a legend of both popular culture and tort law historians. Depending on how you feel about torts, corporate risk analysis, Lee Iacocca, or the Pinto itself, this shirt could serve as an ironic commentary on the general explodiness of early-1970s motor vehicles by those who love those vehicles, a tip of the hat to the positive aspects of tort law, or a defiant middle finger raised in the faces of those who would disrespect the Ford Pinto (and Mercury Bobcat).